4 Tips For Reclaiming Your Time In A 24/7 World

Forbes Woman
I write about the success factors of women entrepreneurs.

Recently, I attended Wall Street Women Forum, which brings together senior level women in the financial services industry to support their continued success. The forum is the brainchild of Jane Newton, Partner and Wealth Advisor at RegentAtlantic.

I was struck by how applicable the topics from Wall Street Women Forum are to entrepreneurial women. Entrepreneurial women, just like high-powered women in finance, need to reclaim their time in a 24/7 world. This is consistent across all sectors and is true for men and women, said presenters Ellen Galinsky and Anne Weisberg of Families and Work Institute (FWI), which studies the changing workforce, family, and community. FWI is also the research partner for When Work Works (WWW) a joint initiative with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) that studies employee and employer best-practices for companies of all size and provides a research-based award When Work Works Awards for Excellence in Workplace Effectiveness and Flexibility.

Corporations are finding that some of their best people are leaving, not for more money but for more control of workplace conditions, said Galinsky. As one senior woman executive explained her decision to leave a large prestigious firm for a mid-sized firm, she made an analogy to trading in her Mercedes for a smaller car, but one where she could chose the model, the color, and the journey, herself.

This is a double-edge sword. Women may leave large companies to create companies and have greater control of their workplace environment, but their employees may leave these startups if they, in turn, don’t have some control of their own time. When starting and growing a company, you want to create a high-performance, engaged culture, said Weisberg. You do this by being a role model for your employees for how to integrate work into your life.

Longer hours doesn’t mean you’re getting more work done. Quite the contrary. You’re less clear-headed and productive, according to Danae Ringelmann of Indiegogo. Time is a valuable commodity, as Nina Vaca of Pinnacle, reminds us, and managing it affects the quality of her life and work.

You can’t manage your time if you don’t know what your priorities are. “I always ask myself if what I’m doing now is the best use of my time,” said Mandy Cabot of Dansko. “When I think of work-life ‘balance,’ I think of a seesaw, one’s up, one’s down, a kind of zero-sum situation. Instead, I like to think of it as work-life integration. This allows me to let myself off the proverbial hook when I take care of personal matters at the office or bring my work home with me.”

“I also think that there are certain sacrifices [you make as an entrepreneur],” said Lili Hall of KNOCK.

Dual-centric, not work-centric

It may seem counter-intuitive, but people who do not always put work first are more successful than those who do, according to research conducted by Families and Work Institute. These people are dual-centric, that is, they are not just all about work.

“My family has to be on an equal plane with work,” said Luan Cox, Crowdnetic.

How do you become dual-centric? A few tips from Galinsky and Weisberg:

Be clear about your priorities.

Create expectations with those at work and at home.

Meet those expectations.

The reality is that there will be times when work will be all-consuming, like during the startup stage of a high-growth company. “So you need to have your family on board with that, what's going to happen, and what real life will look like with this new venture in their lives, said Paula Long of DataGravity” She cautions that when you do take part in family events, you have to really be there and engaged. You can’t show up and leave your mind back at work.

Better, not perfect

“Many women have a tendency to want to be perfect,” said Galinsky and Weisberg. “You’ve got to let go of stuff and be okay if things aren’t perfect… Perfect can be the enemy of good.”

“There’s always something that’s coming up, whether it’s at work, personal, family…you name it, there’s always a way that something can fill your day,” said Kourtney Ratliff of Loop Capital. “What I’ve tried to do is get better at managing what it is that I need to do and what I want to do so that I’m being fulfilled both personally and professionally.”

Team, not individual

A team approach is effective at both work and home. It’s about planning for what’s most important and making sure there is coverage, whether it is business or personal.

“It takes a village, really,” said Erika Bliss of Qliance. “There’s no joke about that. We talk about the company as an investment in the family as well.”

As the needs of her children changed, the team changed for Kara Goldin of Hint, Inc. Instead of one nanny who cared for her four children, she had two people. The morning person cleaned and got the kids out the door. The afternoon person was stricter and could help with homework and drive the kids to activities.

Rest and recovery, not flat out

Rest and recovery are essential for high performance. Everyone knows that performance athletes let their bodies recover. Don’t question the need for rest and recovery for you, as the leader of your company.

“I schedule ‘down time’ for myself every day, time to go to the gym or take a walk,” said Cabot.

“I think it’s important to have hobbies and interests, because a lot of us tend to be very engaged in work and have become workaholics to some degree,” said Liz Elting, TransPerfect.

Bliss found that when she stopped working in the evenings and cut back on the amount of work she did on weekends, she was just as productive as she was when working overtime.

I am president of Ventureneer, a digital media and market research company that helps corporations reach small businesses through thought leadership. My book, Forget the Glass Ceiling: Build Your Business Without One, provides women entrepreneurs practical advice for overcom...